Do not pay Microsoft for stick drift on the brand new Xbox Nano controller
Then I bought to considering extra. Truly, Microsoft has issued a redesigned controller, and it simply launched. The Xbox Nano controller would possibly simply make sense for my good friend, as she’s on the smaller aspect. So I regarded it up. To no nice shock, there’s no point out of Corridor impact sticks on this new design. So my suggestion of 8BitDo’s $30 pad stands for her, and anybody else who desires a fundamental, reasonably priced controller for PC.
Michael Crider / Foundry
I saved mentally poking at this matter. As a matter of truth, none of the first console makers supply default gamepads with drift-resistant sticks, no matter different options they could have. Microsoft’s Xbox pad is blissful to attach over 2.4GHz or Bluetooth, however its sticks are weak. Ditto for the Elite Controller 2, which hasn’t modified a lot since 2019. Sony’s DualSense for the PS5, for all its fancy haptics and adaptive triggers, doesn’t use Corridor impact. The DualSense Edge, the PlayStation model of a “professional” controller, doesn’t characteristic them.
And Nintendo doesn’t use them for the Swap 2’s Pleasure-Cons or the Professional Controller, regardless of almost a decade of well-documented troubles with the issue. It’s an infuriating exclusion on that time — with a 2025 debut and years of issues, there was no cause for Nintendo not to make use of HE or TMR sticks. Other than, in fact, the concept that folks will purchase the Swap 2 no matter they do or don’t embrace within the {hardware}.
Regardless of years of documented points with stick drift, the Swap 2 doesn’t characteristic anti-drift analog sticks on its Pleasure-Cons or the newer Professional controller.
Nintendo
That places us at a degree hitherto unknown within the historical past of gaming: Third-party controllers are, a minimum of on this specific space, superior to the official choices. The 8BitDo I discussed earlier is a measly $30, half the retail value of the Xbox pad, and it options Corridor impact sticks. GameSir, one other dependable price range model, has an analogous one on the identical value. Sony is extra protecting with its official licensing, however you will discover a well-reviewed choice below $50.
There’s even a smaller controller that provides Corridor impact sticks. And naturally, it’s cheaper than Microsoft’s upcoming choice, although it doesn’t appear like that one’s formally licensed for Xbox.
This feels bizarre to me. I can keep in mind the times of Nyko and Mad Catz (with a Z), again when the cheaper choices had been universally reviled. They had been relegated to youthful siblings and visitors, giving them a handicap in multiplayer for all their claims of “turbo” buttons and fancy lighting. And but right this moment, regardless of controllers being shockingly costly, the “official” choices are largely falling behind. Until you want one thing like Sony’s touchpad or Nintendo’s NFC reader, there’s actually no cause to spend extra.
